English

QCSP monsters and the demise of the Chen Conjecture

Computational Complexity 2022-07-28 v4 Logic in Computer Science Logic

Abstract

We give a surprising classification for the computational complexity of the Quantified Constraint Satisfaction Problem over a constraint language Γ\Gamma, QCSP(Γ)(\Gamma), where Γ\Gamma is a finite language over 33 elements which contains all constants. In particular, such problems are either in P, NP-complete, co-NP-complete or PSpace-complete. Our classification refutes the hitherto widely-believed Chen Conjecture. Additionally, we show that already on a 4-element domain there exists a constraint language Γ\Gamma such that QCSP(Γ)(\Gamma) is DP-complete (from Boolean Hierarchy), and on a 10-element domain there exists a constraint language giving the complexity class Θ2P\Theta_{2}^{P}. Meanwhile, we prove the Chen Conjecture for finite conservative languages Γ\Gamma. If the polymorphism clone of Γ\Gamma has the polynomially generated powers (PGP) property then QCSP(Γ)(\Gamma) is in NP. Otherwise, the polymorphism clone of Γ\Gamma has the exponentially generated powers (EGP) property and QCSP(Γ)(\Gamma) is PSpace-complete.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1907.00239,
  title  = {QCSP monsters and the demise of the Chen Conjecture},
  author = {Dmitriy Zhuk and Barnaby Martin},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.00239},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

Lemma 17 was retracted and the boundary between co-NP-complete and PSpace-complete has shifted